Hasta La Gadget!

What’s that smell? According to a recent Twitpic post from Google Mobile’s official Twitter account, it’s the aroma of freshly baked gingerbread cookies, a scent which could signal the impending release of Android’s latest OS is coming sooner than we thought.

The picture shows a tray filled with the Android-logo shaped cookies, which are conspicuously decorated with holiday-themed frosting colors: green bow ties and red dot buttons. Is it merely a benign color palette choice to go with the seasonal dessert, or a clue to an OS release timed to launch during the biggest shopping days of the entire year?

Rumors of the new OS have been circulating for months, and have only escalated since Google’s late October ‘confirmation’ of Gingerbread as the release title with the addition of a giant Gingerbread man to the statuary located near the Android development building on the Google campus. It’s in line with past releases; version 2.0 brought an oversize ‘eclair,’ while 2.2 included an ample helping of ‘froyo.’

With Best Buy pulling ads from its mobile page that show Samsung’s new Nexus S appearing to run Gingerbread, and Engadget’s Thursday post showing an actual Nexus S in their hands, WIRED.com’s Tim Carmody speculates on an appearance as early as next week.

He may be right. Google’s secretive, guerrilla marketing campaign for Gingerbread is ramping up the hype, and judging from the amount of coverage it’s received, the tactics are working. We’ll see what the coming week brings with it.